1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device and a photographed image display control method, and more particularly to a technique for informing a user that an image has been photographed and saved.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional digital camera generally has a liquid crystal monitor on the back for displaying a live view image (pass-through image) by sequentially converting a subject image that has passed through an image taking lens into electrical signals and supplying the signals to the liquid crystal monitor. The user can take an image by checking a subject image on a live view image displayed on the liquid crystal monitor.
When the user takes an image with the above-described camera, the liquid crystal monitor displays a live view image, and image data is saved in response to the user's shutter release operation while the live view image is being displayed. In that case, the liquid crystal monitor displays a still image that has been taken in response to the release operation for a certain period of time (for example, 1.5 seconds or 3 seconds) immediately after the image was taken for allowing the user to confirm the taken still image on the still image display (hereinafter, referred to as “post-view image”), and then switches the post-view image to the live view image.
A beginner or a user unfamiliar with the digital camera, however, cannot easily understand what the post-view image means.
Further, when a subject remaining stationary, such as a landscape, is photographed, a user can not easily notice that the live view image has switched to the post-view image. That has posed a problem in that the user is uncertain whether the image has been successfully photographed or not.
In that case, the user can recognize that the image has been successfully photographed by operating the camera to be in the playback mode in which a photographed image can be played and checking that the photographed image is played.
The invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-165116 is adapted to provide a camera with an easy turn dial, display film frames by the number of a plurality of frames on a liquid crystal screen on the back of the camera, display thumbnail images corresponding to the original image data stored in a memory card in a thumbnail image frames in the film frames, and position a specifying frame on a desired thumbnail image frame by having the user turn the dial to move the film frame or the specifying frame. The invention is also adapted to display the original image corresponding to the thumbnail image when the specifying frame is positioned on the thumbnail image, and be ready to record the original image when the specifying frame is positioned on a free region, and if an image is photographed when the specifying frame is positioned on the free region, insert the thumbnail image of the photographed image in the free region on which the specifying frame is positioned.
That is, the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-165116 is adapted to allow the user to record, play and specify a frame to record by shifting the film frame or the specifying frame in accordance with the turning of the dial.